In the dying moments of the fourth quarter of a 20-20 game that seemed destined for overtime, the Falcons were punting from their own 11-yard line. But the snap was high and when the punter went back to recover it in the back of the end zone, Madison’s Deron Hood was right there to swarm him for a game-winning safety with 10.4 seconds to play.

“It’s funny we’ve been in this situation before. That’s the crazy thing. We’ve been in some of the craziest situations before,” Eagles head coach James Rogers said. “One thing I can credit to my boys is that they stay poised. It doesn’t matter what we go through, they stay poised. We always tell them, all the time, it’s never over. Don’t give up. Play ‘til the last minute of the game because you never know what can happen. And again, it prevailed for us.”

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Hood’s safety put the cap on a wild comeback that even Hollywood would struggle to believe. Of course, on this night, the only people who had to believe it were the Madison Heights Madison Eagles – and believe they did.

For the first three quarters of the game, the Falcons’ wishbone running game had dominated the ball. St. Mary’s Catholic Central built a 20-6 lead late in the third quarter behind a running attack centered on senior Collin Woolford and junior Nicholas Marino that simply ate the clock even faster than it ate yardage. The Falcons possessed the ball for more than 26 minutes in the first three quarters, keeping the high powered Eagle offense off the field.

But when it mattered most, the Eagles made all the plays, starting with a quick four-play, 65-yard drive to open the fourth quarter. The drive was capped by a 30-yard pass from Austin Brown to Zyaire Croskey, trimming the deficit to 20-14 after the two-point conversion.

After forcing the Falcons to punt on their next possession, the Eagles took over on their own 12-yard line with 7:07 to play and needing a touchdown. Right away, the Eagles faced a tough decision on fourth-and-one from their own 21-yard line. Madison decided to go for it. Brown was chased out of the pocket to his right and flung a ball 25 yards down field into double coverage looking for Makai Johnson.

Johnson went up and snatched the ball away from both defenders – then broke a tackle and rumbled another 21 yards to the Falcon 37.

Two plays later, Brown through another jump ball in the direction of Croskey, who used his height advantage to reach back over the defender’s head and pluck the ball out of the air in the corner of the end zone for a game-tying touchdown with 2:30 to play.

“That comes down to trust. I trust these guys with my life and anything,” Brown said. “We’re so athletic that I trust my guys to make plays like that.”

Brown and Croskey were the key components in Madison’s fourth-quarter explosion as Brown finished with 288 yards passing and three touchdowns. Much of that went to Croskey, who finished with seven catches for 128 yards and two touchdowns.

Madison would go for two and fail, but the defense would get the two points anyway, registering the safety on the next possession.

Madison remains unbeaten at 12-0 and advances to the Division 7 semifinals where they will play Saugatuck.

“It’s unexplainable. These guys, what we’ve all been through, what we’ve all been doing all season –- all the training and everything, it’s a good feeling,” Croskey said. “But we’ve got more to do.”